After surpassing Stephen Fleming (7,172 runs), Ross Taylor became New Zealand’s highest Test run-scorer. He recalled his mentor Martin Crowe saying it was he who set the goal.

“My goal was to play one Test match,” Taylor said to the reporters on Monday. “I guess it’s an emotional time because my mentor, Martin Crowe, that was one of the goals he put down for me – to be New Zealand’s highest Test run-scorer. “To be honest I didn’t believe him, but I’d have loved for him to be here and help celebrate.”

Ross Taylor made his Test debut after one and a half years of his ODI debut. His first two Tests were difficult where he managed only 44 runs in four innings in South Africa. Taylor then asked Crowe’s help, which turned his luck.

“My first two in South Africa were pretty tough,” said Taylor. “That was a welcome to Test cricket. “When I first played for New Zealand I’d had a pretty decent one-day career and only scored three or four first-class hundreds and Twenty20 was just coming through.”

“I always thought I was good enough to play one-day cricket but Test cricket was something I was never quite sure if I was good enough. That’s why I (sought) Martin’s help to become a better player than the raw, gay abandon player that I was as a youngster,” he shared.

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Taylor said he is not thinking about retirement yet and wants to set a bigger benchmark so that captain Kane Williamson has ‘something to chase’.

“Records are meant to be broken and ‘Flem’ set a very high standard, and for me, I’m trying to get as many runs before I do retire to give Kane something to chase,” Taylor said. “He’s got a fantastic record and will go down as one of our greatest cricketers but we need him to have something to strive for and hopefully, in however many years, there’s a youngster who can chase whatever, 9, 10, 11 thousand runs that Kane gets to.”